Don’t you just love a coincidence… I was chatting to my hairdresser about starting my etching course again this month and she cuts the hair of a woman whose daughter happens to be Bianca Raffaella who is partially sighted and has some work in a London gallery right now! I know what I’ll be doing next week #blind #PartiallySighted #creativity #art #printmaking #TactileArt #Disability
#PartiallySighted
This sounds brilliant! | In November the Henry Moore Institute in Leeds will host Beyond the Visual “the curators in charge of the show hope it can encourage leaders in the world of visual arts to make their galleries and spaces accessible to blind visitors and artists by ensuring suitable works can be touched.”
#TactileArt #art #blind #PartiallySighted #Deafblind #Disability #Accessibility
https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2025/jul/14/please-do-touch-sculpture-exhibition-curated-by-blind-people-to-feature-tactile-works?CMP=share_btn_url
I’ve been to The British Library this morning for their audiodescribed art workshop, so much fun! We looked at a very detailed painting by Flemish artist Simon Benning who was working at the start of the 1500s when oil painting techniques were just beginning and the paint was made in the studio. We were all given a tactile diagram produced by a Swell Form machine where the black lines become raised for us to feel. It’s a tricky method as the very complicated painting has to be simplified (e.g. a range of mountains is represented by a thin line and a building in the forground is a much heavier block shape) Our describer Carly talked us through the image from top to bottom and helped us to fill in details in our imagination that she couldn’t include. There was also the opportunity for anyone with useful vision to look at the painting on an iPad and I was delighted to find some Braille on the back of the diagram.
This painting is from The Book of Hours and depicts a July day of haymaking, with large trees in the background and several people in the foreground using farming tools. There was also a dog curled up in the sun.
After our discussion we then had a go at ‘drawing’ using sculpture wire and I did some kind of stylised leaf shape that didn’t quite work! Some people used pliers and came up with some very intricate designs and others tried covering their wire drawing with tissue paper and glue to add texture. Some of the group then went to the exhibition to see the painting on display but by then I was tired from all the concentrating and was ready to head home.
Last time I attended I did some drawings of a papaya on the Swell Form paper so it was exciting to get the finished tactile version back! Some lines were quite light and others very thick, where Id used a paint brush rather than a pen. It is truly wonderful to be able to feel your work, even if it doesn’t always turn out quite how you’d imagined it haha!
I’l be back in the autumn for more experiments.
#TactileArt #blind #PartiallySighted #Braille #library #audiodescription #Disability @disability
With all the changes going on at RNIB I’ve started looking into NFB UK but I’ve no idea how effective it is. Are many other #blind, #PartiallySighted or #Deafblind people in the UK on here members of it, and what do you think of it as an organisation?
This sounds like a wonderful immersive experience for #blind and #partiallySighted people at London Fashion Week but what I want to know is if the detailed audiodescriptions they produced will be made available after the event?! #disability #audiodescription #fashion @disability | #LondonFashionWeek - Tactile sessions aid visually impaired fans - BBC News https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c1en7pgvvvlo
Happy birthday to @bemyeyes I’ve just seen that it’s 10 years old now and I vividly remember what it was like to hear about this amazing app on an RNIB tech podcast when I’d only lost my sight a few months and was struggling with the sudden loss of independence. Using Be My Eyes changed my outlook on doing things myself, I didn’t have to wait for someone sighted to come home to get things done! Over the years I’ve learned so many more tools and stopped using it for a while but now we have Be My AI I’m using it every week again for something - taking my own photos and enjoying the ability to access descriptions of photos on social media if I want to. I always recommend this app to anyone just losing their sight as one of the first things to learn to use #blind #PartiallySighted #Accessibility #BeMyEyes
Here’s the link to watch the wonderful RNIB #Braille200 event that took place at the British Library in London last week! You can also read the transcript if you prefer #Braille #blind #Deafblind #PartiallySighted #Disability @disability https://youtu.be/wovwnhTcaBw?si=tfYB3A_OPEDHccVV
The #Braille200 event on Tues evening at the British Library was brilliant - to have so many Braille enthusiasts together is very rare, and there was a relaxed atmosphere of celebration; with wine, canapes and lovely background music. Braille doesn’t get this type of VIP treatment very often! The message that I took away from the engaging panel event was very much that Braille is part of the toolkit for a blind person, no one is expecting you to use it exclusively - when your hands are tired, use audio and when audio gets overwhelming, use your hands. The fact is that some tasks lend themselves better to one or the other. It’s all personal choice.
I also enjoyed looking at some items from the library archive, including a handmade Braille book by Stevie Ronnie with beautiful binding and a children’s Braille book, by Polly Edman, that had tactile thread winding across the pages to make it interactive.
I also had fun trying out the Dot Pad again and got my hands on the Monarch too (they both display graphics as well as being multi line Braille displays) - way too expensive, but hey, a girl can dream! Tech like this represents the future so fabulously, showing that Braille is both a reading and writing medium, but now also has the potential to help blind people understand graphics and charts more easily and allow them to be creative themselves.
I bumped into several people I know which was lovely and I’m sure there were plenty of others there that I didn’t find, the joys of trying to socialise when totally blind!
There were about 230 guests and it felt so special to be able to attend this event, one of the many events being organised to celebrate the 200th anniversary of Braille.
I’m sure there’ll be many podcasts coming out from the RNIB about the event but the link below gives a taster, with many interviews recorded on the night:
#blind #PartiallySighted #LowVision #Deafblind #Braille #Disability
Join the party! The #Braille200 British Library event will be live streamed tomorrow evening from 7.30pm UK time and you can register here:
https://thebritishlibraryculturalevents.seetickets.com/event/braille-200-championing-tactile-literacy/british-library/3212394
#Braille #blind #PartiallySighted
This #Braille200 survey has been set up by RNIB to gather information about the experiences of #Braille users in the UK. It takes about 10 mins to fill out and closes on 18th October #blind #PartiallySighted #Deafblind #Disability #disabled
A great online event from The Braillists Foundation coming up on Tues 17 Sept, 7.30pm UK time | “Braille Screen Input has been overhauled!
iOS and iPad OS 18, due for release on Monday 16 September, include the biggest refresh of Braille Screen Input since the feature was first introduced in iOS 8. Although you can, for the most part, still use Braille Screen Input as you always have done, the new functionality in Apple's latest flagship operating systems is a source of much excitement throughout the blind community and will almost certainly take your Braille Screen Input experience to the next level.
Join us as Matthew Horspool talks us through:
* The devices supported by iOS and iPad OS 18
* New ways to enter and exit Braille Screen Input
* New sounds and haptics
* Braille entry improvements
* Using Braille Screen Input to control and navigate your #iPhone or iPad”
#Braille #blind #PartiallySighted #Deafblind#Disability
https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZ0rcuiurD4jEtzda-jQnGPzOtRBBVQuB3YX#/registration
I joined a new online parenting support group set up by RNIB and led by a blind mum yesterday and it was really positive, I think it could be very helpful for parents with kids of all ages. Just a relaxed chat really and there’ll be a WhatsApp group to share links to products / services mentioned in the monthly meetings. It’s at the initial stage where we can decide as a group what we want from it. It reminded me how good these things can be, after over doing the online meet ups in 2020. Anyway, if any UK based #blind or #PartiallySighted parents fancy joining, email CYPF.Mailbox@rnib.org.uk. We’re of course looking for more blind dads. The next meeting is on Friday 27 September at 1-00pm.
Captcha and blind users and their email addresses. Why it is a problem.
https://universeodon.com/@FreakyFwoof/111956924313468553
#Captcha
#Blind
#SightImpaired
#PartiallySighted
#EMail
#Spam
#Accessibility
This audio described tour looks great - Weds 28 Aug, 6.30pm, The Barbican, London, Ricochets by Francis Alÿs: “A new immersive exhibition celebrating the universality and ingenuity of play”
#blind #PartiallySighted #art #accessibility #Disability @disability
https://www.barbican.org.uk/whats-on/2024/event/francis-alys-audio-described-tour
Essential listening for any UK #blind and #PartiallySighted people interested in the proposed changes at RNIB, including an interview with my friend Rachel who’s set up a petition to try to make RNIB aware of the strong feeling many of us have about the impact of cuts to services. As she points out, if we want to access help from charities including RNIB we need tech skills to engage with what they offer! via @doubletap
https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/double-tap/id1309267346?i=1000664496453
Please sign and share this petition re cuts at RNIB -“with assistive technology, apps & AI developing at such speed, #blind and #PartiallySighted people need more support to get online not less”
https://www.change.org/p/save-rnib-s-technology-for-life-team-from-cutbacks-to-staff-and-services
#disabled #UK
Prof Anica Zeyen has written about the new #blind Barbie doll and I was interested to read what she has to say about it. I think it’s great that the packaging has #Braille on it and that blind and partially sighted children were involved in the design | https://drdiary.blog/2024/07/23/disability-representation-embracing-the-first-blind-barbie/
#inclusion #PartiallySighted #Deafblind #Disability
Wonderful to read about this! #Glastonbury #blind #PartiallySighted #accessibility #disability Glastonbury Festival: Artist spends weekend helping disabled fans - BBC News https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c10lg1nv3zqo
Off to The British Library this morning to learn about Henry VIII’s illuminated manuscripts and then have a go at creating a tactile illuminated letter myself, exciting! #TactileArt #audiodescription #blind #PartiallySighted #creativity
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